Johnny Cash – a Gregory Peck
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www.tftw.freeuk.com £1/10/0d - £1.50 - €2.44 - $2.25 Issue No. 34 October 2003 Every bomber built is a theft from the poor Line’, which starred Johnny Cash – A Gregory Peck. Add to this a weekly U.S. television show (four Personal Tribute episodes even made it by Steve Howarth to the U.K. on a pilot scheme), a film with Kirk I first saw Johnny Cash in 1968 at the Manchester Douglas (A Gunfight) Odeon along with my brother Tony. Being a young and the excellent ‘J.C. rocker, I was there primarily to see Carl Perkins The Man, His World, His but, by the end of the performance, I was in no Music’ doing the rounds doubt who the star of the show was. I was only at the cinemas, cameos familiar with a handful of Johnny’s songs so was in ’Columbo’ and ‘Little in the enviable position of hearing most of the House On The Prairie’ material for the first time. Songs of rivers, trains, (remember him singing prisons, love death and hard times in rural ‘Black Jack Davy’?); Arkansas, all driven along by the Tennessee we’d never seen or Three and this charismatic singing story teller in heard so much of the the black frock coat with a delivery that grabbed man in black. this listener and never let go. Fortunately, the Cash back catalogue was still easy to obtain in the late ‘60s. Any decent record shop might stock a dozen CBS albums and the Sun stuff was still available from Dan Coffey; quite a strain on an apprentice’s wages! I followed Johnny’s career ever since that first awakening. I caught him four times at various venues, Belle Vue ’71 being especially memorable. I bought the albums on release; as What a revue the Johnny Cash Show was at this with his old label mate Jerry Lee Lewis, you could time. Mother Maybelle and her girls reliving the usually rely on the purchase. Like all artists, there legacy of the Carter family; the Statler Bros with were peaks and troughs but I’m glad he was able their faultless harmonies (“smokin’ cigarettes and to finish on a high. The collaborations with watching Captain Kangaroo”); Carl rockin’ and producer Rick Rubin have done the man proud boppin’ and probably sounding closer to the Sun and garnered a few Grammys along the way. sound than we in the U.K. had heard before. Whilst still strong enough to tour, Johnny even Newlyweds Johnny and June would sing up a won over the Glastonbury crowd – not bad for a storm on the likes of ‘Jackson’ and ‘Long Legged man nearing retirement age. Guitar Pickin’ Man’ before the whole ensemble would slay us with a call and response gospel Johnny Cash, I’m sad to see you go. Your music number – brilliant. has enriched my life. I’m thankful for the memories of the live shows and I have a stack of Within the next couple of years Johnny Cash was albums to enjoy your legacy whenever the mood to become a massive force in popular music. The takes. ‘San Quentin’ album/documentary and ‘Boy Named Sue’ hit single made him a man very Thanks a lot. much in demand. Besides John’s commitment to Columbia he managed a couple of soundtracks for ‘Little Fauss And Big Halsey’ and ‘I Walk The Steve Howarth 1 2 Within a short while I went to work for a company called ‘Hi-Lo’, erecting scaffolding around a couple of cooling towers at West Ham power station. Dave remained with ‘S.G.B’ (or Scaffolding Great Britain to use their full title), working on the construction of an octagonal (dodecahedral?) office block opposite East Croydon railway station, known locally to this day as the ‘Threepenny Bit’ building (‘Fifty Pence’ to those under thirty – H). It was here that Dave met his death, falling sixty feet and landing on his say head. “HOLD THE THIRD PAGE!” The following year, Cash was back, embarking on 'Tales From The Woods' raises a glass and says another British tour, again hitting the Farewell to the great Johnny Cash who died on Walthamstow Granada, by which time his original th September 12 from complications to his lead guitarist, Luther, had died tragically in a fire a diabetes, aged 71. few months earlier. I remember Cash explaining this to a young fan who had yelled “Where is The period; the mid sixties. I knew of Johnny Luther!”. The rockin’ guitar man, Carl Perkins, had Cash; knew that in country circles he was a name now joined the Cash tour where he would remain to be reckoned with; knew that back in the mid to for several years. I recall being excited on seeing late fifties he had made some rockabilly(ish) Perkins for only the second time, the first being records for Sun records. Equally I knew that he the famous ‘Chuck Berry & Carl Perkins’ tour a was a cult figure whose appeal spread way couple of years previously. outside of country music’s natural habitat. Whenever the Man In Black toured I was normally Raised on Rock'n'Roll and the blues, country there to catch him on at least one London date music was still to make an impact on my throughout the many long years that followed. impressionable young self. I was a scaffolder st heading towards my 21 birthday, working with a Come 1994 the man appeared at Glastonbury, young guy around the same age as myself, Dave performing , to great acclaim, to a young and very Cooper, who I would soon discover was a new audience, no doubt a new lease of life massive Johnny Cash fan. Despite not being a afforded to him courtesy of his new label, country fan as such, at work he would continually American Recordings, produced by a man rave about Cash’s recent album ‘Bitter Tears’ normally associated with nu-metal and generally (Ballads Of The American Indian). I learnt the very contemporary acts. Rick Rubin. Veteran story behind ‘The Ballad Of Ira Hayes’ long before 'Tales From The Woods' contributor Shaky Lee I heard the song. Wilkinson and I, clutching advance purchase tickets in our sweaty palms, made our way to the When Johnny was booked for his first British tour Shepherds Bush Empire that July. Upon arriving Dave was the first in the queue at the we discovered several dozen disappointed fans Walthamstow Granada. In the meantime I had milling around outside, desperately hoping bought the ‘Bitter Tears’ LP and thought it was someone would sell them a spare ticket. brilliant. By the time I was to join Dave at the ole Granada at Walthamstow I was well on the way to Once inside the venue the truth hit us between the being a convert. The tour included the Statler eyes; the place was packed to the rafters with a Brothers and the Carter family including Mother very much ‘grungy’ young crowd. What a sweet Maybelle and Cash was backed up on lead guitar pair of old grandpas we looked as we shuffled our by Luther Perkins. On that tour Johnny included a way to the bar. It was common knowledge that Big few songs from ‘Bitter Tears’ along with the John had been a smash at Glastonbury but we aforementioned version of the Peter LaFarge had not expected this. Neither had the by now song ‘The Ballad Of Ira Hayes’. hundreds of frustrated fans hovering around outside. We were treated to his own compositions for the album, ‘Apache Tears’ and ‘Custer’. From that first Backed up by the Tennessee Three, which show I remember ‘I Walk The Line’, ‘Folsom included W S Holland on drums, the man was Prison Blues’ and ‘Five Feet High And Rising’. dynamite. It is not too often you can say that the When I came out of the theatre that night I would last time you saw an act of Cash’s vintage was the be a Johnny Cash fan and would remain so for best. Shepherds Bush Empire 1994 was the best years ever after. Johnny Cash gig ever. No contest, folks. 3 When Johnny was 12 his brother Jack died in an Interspersing the very old, mostly Sun material horrific and tragic accident with a circular saw; this with the very new, from his then latest CD by all accounts intensified his already strong including the Nick Lowe penned ‘The Beast In religious convictions to the point of fervour. Me’. He opened with ‘Folsom Prison Blues’ and his second number from his Sun days, much to Graduating from high Shaky Lee’s joy, was ‘Get Rhythm’. A few songs school in 1950 he was into the set an excited, near breathless, kid soon heading north to arrived late, held up no doubt by London’s work in a Pontiac car notoriously unreliable public transport system. factory in Michigan. It “How long has he been on? What have I missed?” certainly didn’t take him he asked both Lee and I. “Oh, about 15 minutes”, long to realise this was Shaky replied before adding, “He has done ‘Get not the life for him so he Rhythm’”. “Oh no,” the kid squealed, “That’s my enlisted in the United favourite”. States Air Force and was posted to Landsberg, Along the way we got a very rockabilly workout on West Germany. There he worked as a radio ‘Country Boy’, knockout versions of ‘Big River’ and intercept officer, eavesdropping on Soviet radio ‘Cry, Cry, Cry’.